City Council may pass a resolution Tuesday night that would ask Mayor Donna Deegan, Democrat, for an accounting on various federal grants, housing and funding of local non-profit organizations.

One local activist is not impressed. Blake Harper says the resolution is weak and completely overlooks a misstep by Deegan’s administration.

Because the bill by Council Member Ken Amaro is a resolution, not an ordinance, it therefore lacks any power to compel Deegan to act. It also does not include state grants. Harper called that “a serious oversight.”

The Amaro resolution is a rewrite of an ordinance sponsored by Council Member Rory Diamond that was passed by the council earlier. Deegan vetoed it and the council did not override her veto.

Harper claims that the Deegan administration let a $1 million state grant lapse in June 2024 and then tried to get money from it this year for work done in Johnson Park. The request was refused.

The city had sought to get more funds under the original grant but according to a May 13, 2025, letter from the Florida Dept. of State, the city failed to properly document expenditures, submit a final report and make a timely payment request.

Deegan has been following the work of her predecessor, Lenny Curry, who had the statue of a soldier snatched from the park in the dead of night and secreted away.

Funds from the original grant were used by Curry to take the statue down. Deegan used the remainder and other funds to remove the base of the statue and for a “community conversation” about the park that Harper says was a sham.

A source in City Hall said the administration might seek a $250,000 reimbursement from the state.

Curry’s attempt to rewrite history was another “woke” moment, like the renaming of Robert E. Lee High School, and enraged many local citizens.

Amaro’s bill is on the consent agenda, which is a collection of bills not considered controversial, and passed on a single vote.

Harper is hoping to put pressure on council members to prevent its passage and send it back for repair that would make it more effective.